Over the past decade or so, homeschooling has become more and more popular with families. But homeschooling relies more on the structured environment of traditional education, and this is something that many families are realizing may no longer work for them. Their alternative? Unschooling.
Before we kick this off, explaining what you need to know about unschooling, be sure to check out our Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling in which we cover all of the ins and outs of this world.
Unschooling is a form of homeschooling, which like all homeschooling, is taught at home. That is about where the similarities end. Whereas other types of homeschooling are structured, unschooling is not. Homeschooling usually enjoys the pace of formal education, unschooling does not. Instead of following a planned curriculum, unschooling instead allows the child to direct their own learning and to do so at their own pace.
The simple belief behind unschooling is that a child’s curiosity can develop into formal learning and that formal schooling is not necessary. This belief is on the rise as it was estimated of the nearly 3.8 million homeschooled students in 2020-21, that over 13 percent learn through unschooling.
The Origins Of Unschooling
American educator John Holt was the very first to coin the term “unschooling” in 1977 when he released his magazine, Growing Without Schooling. After teaching within the public school system for years, Holt became disillusioned with its structure. Holt became convinced that children, if “provided with a rich and stimulating learning environment” would then learn what they are ready to learn and learn at their own pace.
Holt also believed that children did not need coercion to learn. If they were given the freedom to follow what interests they had, to go along with an assortment of resources, then they would learn naturally and not by force. This thought became the basis for “unschooling.”
As homeschooling became more popular, so did the idea of unschooling. Mary Griffith, author of The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World as Your Child’s Classroom, summed up the differences between homeschooling and unschooling in one sentence, saying “Unschooling means learning what one wants, when one wants, in the way one wants, for one’s own reasons.”
How Unschooling Works
So, how exactly does unschooling work? If there seems to be a lack of structure, how would a parent go about schooling an unschooler? Well, parents who opt to take the unschooling approach are very hands-off. Unschooling does not rely on textbooks or workbooks but instead uses a number of different methods to have their child learn.
For example, instead of parents choosing a book, they allow the child to do so. The child decides which adults to talk to about specific interests, they decide what places to visit to learn about subjects that interest them, such as museums or zoos. The child also decides how they want to interact with the world outside.
An unschooled child will have no tests or grades to measure them by. The parent does not set goals or deadlines. If there are any personal goals, it is the child who sets them, and they do so at their own pace. Unschooling is the ultimate “learn at your own pace” doing so with interactions in their everyday life.
Now, it should be noted here that an unschooling approach doesn’t necessarily mean that parents just kick their feet up and relax, call it a day and enjoy the ride. Far from it. While there are parents who will opt to employ a more “free-range” model for their children in which the latter are truly “on their own” so to speak, an unschooling parent is often working as hard as a typical homeschooling parent. It just looks different. While family engaged in traditional homeschooling methods will be often working from a set and designed curriculum, meeting certain goals within a variety of subject matter, that isn’t the case with unschooling.